The mere idea of Republicans sponsoring death penalty repeal bills in great numbers was once considered an unlikely notion. However, Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty recently released a report revealing how Republicans are championing measures to end capital punishment at never-before-seen rates.

Last month, Yemen’s Houthis, the Iranian-supported rebel faction that now dominates the southern Persian Gulf’s most volatile state, fired a ballistic missile that came close to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, before being intercepted by the country’s military. The incident was a clear sign of the deepening sectarian conflict between Tehran and Riyadh now taking place throughout the Middle East. But it was also an accurate reflection of the sort of asymmetric tactics being prioritized by Iran in its strategy for regional dominance.

How many conversations have we had with our friends, family and co-workers wondering what happened to the millennials? We expect a new generation to have new ideas and new ways of approaching the world. So how do we explain when a new generation is steeped in bullying, complaining about hurt feelings, demanding “safe spaces,” and using pride in fragile egos and weakened emotional states as the excuse to condemn free speech?

Our news-hack kids — or, as Obama chief spinner Ben Rhodes called them, the “27-year-old know-nothings” — don’t have a clue as to the operative history of the North Korean nuclear threat to Asia, the Pacific and the United States.

American manufacturing has been undergoing a tough transition for decades. Import competition and currency manipulation by other countries as well as regulatory excess at home have all taken a toll in many sectors of manufacturing. Just as manufacturing in America appears to be coming back, it faces a formidable new threat: a cabal of activists, cunning lawyers, ambitious politicians and a network of well-heeled benefactors.

Westerners applaud the actions of the Trump administration to end the war on the West waged by the Obama administration, including: President Trump’s efforts to revitalize energy production from federal lands — oil and gas and coal; his dispatch of the Environmental Protection Agency’s land-grabbing “waters of the United States” rule; and his order to revoke, roll back or revise the national monument decrees with which President Obama placed millions of acres of federal lands off-limits to economic and recreational uses.

Relieving the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of its oversight of our nation’s air traffic control (ATC) operations would create significant concerns in both military and homeland security air defense mission areas. House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Schuster has advocated relentlessly for ATC privatization, drafting and promoting two separate bills outlining the move to privatized control of the busiest airspace in the world. Endorsed by the Trump administration, this move has repercussions beyond the inherent conflict of interest presented by a commercial airline governing board.

On May 25, 1977, the original “Star Wars” movie, “A New Hope,” made its debut. It immediately had an impact that is hard to measure, especially on the generation that would, unfortunately, be called “X,” itself a seemingly sci-fi moniker.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, speaking to the Reagan National Defense Forum on Dec. 2, offered up a doomsday prediction. When asked how close the United States and North Korea are to war, Mr. McMaster replied, “It’s increasing every day.” Sen. Jim Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, seconded that statement in even more distressing language: “It is important for us here in the Senate to communicate to the American people the credible, grave, and immediate threat that we face . We don’t have the luxury of time.”

College administrators around the country, it seems, are rushing to acquiesce to even the most minor of voices on campuses to make sure the “C” word — that’s “C” for Christmas, shhh! — doesn’t cause angst in some offended student’s ears. Basically, they’re driving hard to drive out the reason for the season, Jesus Christ.

You don’t have to be a fan of Alabama’s Republican senatorial nominee Roy Moore to see that the Furies in the media aren’t willing to cut him a break even when his most lethal accusers have been caught falsifying the record. The late Charles Manson seems to have gotten a more sympathetic press. For the past two months, the “Never Moore” media have tried to sink the judge by insisting his dating of teenage girls when he was in his 30s was scandalous on its face, even when they were of age, their mothers approved and the women themselves conceded he never engaged in sexual misconduct.

A good man is hard to find, so the common wisdom once went, but in the spirit of the hysteria season certain feminists have rewritten that to, "Never trust a man with his factory equipment intact." A woman in Michigan is running hard for state attorney general as the Democratic candidate with a missing penis.

Chicken is a game usually won by the boldest and most irresponsible player in the game. Democrats usually prevail because they know how to place the blame on the other player. Republicans, eager to avoid being seen as not very nice, usually threaten no one and settle for a friendly pat on the head. But this time they must gird their bashful loins, grit their teeth and refuse to yield. At stake is more than money. With the immigration issue on the table the outcome is a matter of national security.

Americans, even the best-informed, often make the mistake of thinking the United Kingdom joined the European Union "for the money" when, in fact, we have been for decades massive financiers of the EU (some $504 billion since we joined).

President Trump is the first president to have the ethical fortitude to proclaim that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel. Jerusalem is important only because the Jews made it important. History proves that Arabs and other Muslims customarily considered Jerusalem a backwater. In 1995 Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, requiring the movement of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, even 22 years later, affirms Israel's sovereignty. By removing the United States from the position of pressuring Israel to sacrifice its historic, religious and strategic capital, Israel will now be able to negotiate on its own behalf.

If you have not read Henry James' "Portrait of a Lady," you may have a hard time getting into John Banville's "Mrs. Osmond." It picks up the tale of Isabel Archer, now Mrs. Gilbert Osmond, pretty much where James had left her. She had defied her husband and gone to England to see her dying cousin Ralph.

Show me the application, dude -- that was the underlying demand from Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan to FBI director Chris Wray during a House Judiciary hearing to determine a little bit more about Peter Strozk, the just-fired Robert Mueller attack dog.

Lindsey Vonn, whose name is known within the sports world for Olympic gold medal skiing and without, for dating Tiger Woods, took some serious potshots at the president en route to this February's winter games in Pyeongchang. And in so doing, she pretty much slammed the country that elected Donald Trump -- the country she's supposed to be representing in the Olympics.

You'd think the pope at least might be in President Donald Trump's court on the whole Tel Aviv-versus-Jerusalem thing -- the announced move of the U.S. Embassy from the former to the latter and the ensuing recognition of the latter as Israel's true capital. After all, the guy's the voice of the Catholic Church. If anyone might rise above lowly human politics to side with the spiritual on this matter, it'd be Pope Francis, yes?

Donald Trump thinks of himself as the comedian-in-chief reprising Elizabeth Warren as the butt of his pointed political satire. To her consternation, he draws chuckles if not guffaws calling the Massachusetts senator "Pocahontas," the celebrated squaw of early American history, needling her for inventing Cherokee ancestors just to claim a diversification slot on the Harvard faculty. "Fake ancestry," he might call it.

President Trump's son-in-law and designated Middle East peace envoy, Jared Kushner, told the Brookings Institution's Saban Forum last weekend that a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is key to solving larger goals, such as stopping Iranian aggression and Islamic extremism.

On this, the 76th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, I am accompanying former basketball star and accidental diplomat Dennis Rodman on a visit to Guam. Like Hawaii was in 1941, Guam is an American territory with strategic military importance, home to around 7,000 brave American military personnel. And like Hawaii in 1941, Guam has been threatened by a foreign adversary. Instead of Gen. Tojo, Guam has been targeted by Marshal Kim Jong-un of North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as a target for their potentially nuclear-armed missile strikes.

Whether Congress enacts a federal elementary and secondary education savings account (ESA) program as part of its tax reform package is anybody's guess. Yet one thing's for certain: The states shouldn't wait for Congress to expand educational options — especially California.

The politicians who set out to fix America's health care system ended up making many things worse. This is no surprise. It's the Washington way. Costs are still rising, even for those of us who've reached the age where Medicare has stepped in and become our primary insurance.

The Great Recession of 2008-09 convinced me, like many other observers, that the city-state of Dubai's razzmatazz — Go skiing in the boiling heat! Gawk at the world's tallest building! — was but a desert mirage. I lambasted Dubai in a 2009 article for "hucksterism and fast talk," running a "trompe l'oeil economy," and suckering outsiders with Ponzi-scheme real estate deals. It appeared to be only a matter of time until the whole edifice collapsed.

Standing on principle is admirable, but sitting on a Plan B just in case is smart. Automakers are doing both to navigate the obstacles they face in building vehicles both powerful and clean. It's only wise strategy — the future of the fuel is fuzzy.